Text taken from LiterNet.ro | author: Mihai Brezeanu

awakening threatens to become the most successful show of the Regina Maria Theatre in Oradea in the last many years. Written by Doru Vatavlui (and) based on the experiences and personal confessions of the teenagers in the cast and staged by Bobi Pricop, awakening had its premiere in January 2026 in the large & splendid hall of the Oradea theatre. 5 months later, in the midst of TIFF.25, the performance of our north-western neighbors filled the huge & splendid hall of the Cluj National Theatre (in this case, the adjective splendid (does not rule out the urgent need for a thorough renovation). A rare case: at the debate with the audience after the performance, around 700 spectators remained. Seven hundred! Who would have thought that social & educational theater could be popular theater?

Once upon a time Spring awakening, a play written by the German playwright Frank Wedekind at the beginning of the last century, with its absolute premiere in 1906. Another world, another era, the same restlessness, the same need to bring to light a little-known part of society. Then, and now, teenagers often remain strangers to adults. Even in the case / (Especially in the case?) when the adults are their parents / teachers.

In awakening, the main heroine (Amalia) is played by Anastasia Vicoveanu. The characters Amalia's Father (Răzvan Vicoveanu) and Amalia's Mother (Alina Leonte) are confused with Anastasia's father and mother. The main hero, Bogdan, is played, equally, by Robert Balint and Filip Ionescu. Ditto, Bogdan's father is either Richard Balint or Sorin Ionescu. The same equation in the case of the character Bianca, Amalia's friend: Bianca Rusu and her father, on stage and in life, Alexandru Rusu. The seniors are all members of the Regina Maria Theater troupe. The juniors are high school students in the city's colleges on Crișul Repede.

I said, above, on stage. The wording is inaccurate. 99% in the show happens with the actors in the hall. Taking seats next to the spectators, circulating among the stalls. They only go on stage at the end, in the last scene („"the balcony scene"”, as someone who has already seen the show 3 times said). There, in the last frame, Pricop manages to stage a wonderful metaphor: the old wooden stage of the theater hosts the only face-to-face meeting, unmediated by the screen, between the protagonists. The theater becomes synonymous with truth, it becomes the place where we have the chance to rebuild the path free from manipulations / fake-s from one person to another.

The rest of the time, the set consists of a huge white screen onto which mobile phone screens are projected, on which the discussions, video or written, between the characters, posts on various social networks, various clips, etc. iRonic Distors / Alin Sterian (video art), Bogdan Țolea (motion graphic), Constantin Șimon (video programming) and Sergiu Domide (video operation) flow.

The time has come when, finally, on the holy plank of 2026, our digital body takes the place that everyday reality offers day after day! Mine, yours and the other/theirs. These digital bodies are added to the already classic ones (physical bodies, those in memory, those imagined) and create the identity of the teenager & adult of today & now. Chapa Vatavu & Pricop & fear for such an achievement!

***

Anastasia Vicoveanu, Robert Balint (in the Cluj performance, from June 2026) and Rebeca Rusu, together with Dania Uifaluși (Cristina), Benjamin Kendi (Cosmin) and Tudor Neagu (Alex) do an excellent job (coordinator of high school actors: Cosmin Petruț). A sextet of high school students who perform with disarming ease and precision! Bobi Pricop relies heavily on the accelerated rhythm, the music proposed by iRonic Distors / Alin Sterian enhances the directorial option, what we see, hear, feel, think unfolds at the speed of their days & nights. Everything fast forward, everything on a large scale, everything with a frightening dimension of scattering, dissemination, flooding.

Fake pics-s with Amalia ignite the imagination, inflame stereotypes, abrogate the critical spirit, threaten to compromise everything. The parents try to understand, to oppose, to stop the out-of-control unfolding of events. It's just that their methods, their reaction times, their words, their gestures, their decisions come from another world. The school psychologist (Adela Lazăr) barely manages to achieve at most brief truces, often shrouded in ridicule. When the scandal roars on the big net, with ample traffic & enormous exposure (video appearances: Silviu Faiăr, Really Rux, Sabina Teodora, Alex Zlăvog, Pete Line), things seem completely out of control.

In the past, walking alone on the street was a right that children learned after many lessons from adults. Today, walking alone on the e-street is something that each individual does on their own from early childhood. Without any prior training, without any guidance, without any user manual. After, for centuries, man has built a society far from the jungle, the smartphone instantly teleports us into the e-jungle. Meeting the e-beasts of the e-jungle, that's what it's all about in awakening. About the forced maturation process that this event causes in those who are unfortunate enough to experience it.

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A word about happy end. It's risky. It can cause moral dilemmas. It was even the subject of a question at the debate in Cluj (by the way, every show is followed by a debate, not just the ones on tour, at awakening (it's not the parents/teachers who push children to go to the theater, but the other way around.) Everyone has the right to their own reasoned opinion.

For me, the happy ending it's the bet Wake up with each of us. The problem he brings up is serious and potentially devastating. We don't need to wrap it in a theatrical tragedy to understand its potential novice consequences. We need to look reality in the eyes & pixels, to understand what it looks like, what its risks are, how we can overcome them. Does that sound corporatist / bureaucratic / procedure-worshiping? Good! This is how demons are cast out in the post-jungle society!